Page 90 of A Tale of Treachery

The fog settled, and I squinted my eyes, desperately searching for Eulalia’s mate, for Ryken’s friend, only to meet the large, glowing golden eyes of some sort of demonic creature from the pits of hell.

My mouth dropped open, and I released my breath.

A dragon.

Fin was a damned dragon! I thought they’d all died. Nobody had seen a dragon in nearly a century, and I certainly never knew that dragons were actually fae shifters.

He was large, almost as large as the sanctum itself, and his scales were a deep metallic green-gold that shone in the moonlight. His teeth were pointed and sharp and at least the size of my entire body. And all I could think was that Eulalia would get to ride him.

Lucky girl.

Ryken snapped his fingers in my face. “He’s a dragon. Big deal. There are tons of them in the dragon lands.”

I turned to face him, my eyes wide. “Dragon lands!” I squeaked. “You mean there are more of them?”

I wanted a dragon so badly, but knowing that they were fae ruined the magic of them a little. A pet dragon would no longer be possible. You couldn’t own a fae.

Ryken narrowed his eyes. “Yes, it’s in Faerie and where Fin will be taking the prisoners to live.”

“Wow…” I looked back at Fin—the dragon—and he acknowledged my awe with a little puff of smoke and a toothy sort of grin.

It was clear now how they’d planned to use him as a distraction. He would keep the entire palace occupied and nearly soiling themselves for however long we needed.

I shook my head in disbelief. “Wow…just wow.”

Finn snorted, the sound similar to a thunderclap, and flapped his wings, the large leatherlike structures bending the air around us and creating a storm of their own as his scaly body lifted above the ground. With a loud roar, he took off into the sky, fire streaming from his mouth. My eyes traced his path as he dove toward the palace and circled round and round, roaring and breathing flames into the air.

Guards yelled and screamed, ringing the signaling bells as they warned the palace of an imminent attack. Torches lined the walkways and walls as the guards gathered, preparing to defend the palace, whose occupants had awoken to a living nightmare.

He was the best distraction we could ever ask for.

Ryken gripped my arm tightly and commanded in his deep voice, “Let’s go.”

My eyes met his, and my heart sank like a stone. “All right.”

A lump lodged its way in my throat as I followed him, rapidly blinking. The bargain we’d made would save Eulalia, but it was increasingly starting to feel like a death sentence for me. I should have found Fin and never told Ryken about any of this. Fin would have saved her, and he probably would have enlisted Ryken’s help, free of charge.

We walked right through the gate and easily made our way to the dungeon without being noticed or stopped. The soldiers who usually stood guard at the entrance of the prison were gone, too busy fighting a dragon to worry about the prisoners trapped behind bars.

The stench had grown worse since the last time I was here, the desperation of the prisoners increasing tenfold. There were new faces behind the iron bars this time, the last prisoners having been executed or died from natural causes. It seemed like the less powerful witches and mages were imprisoned above ground.

“I don’t see Eulalia or her coven,” Ryken said, his gaze scanning the endless row of cells. “Where are they?”

I knew where they were. They’d likely been placed in that dank sublevel beneath the dungeon, deemed too much of a threat to be stashed above the surface. “They’re down below in an iron-fortified section of the dungeons.” Ryken grimaced, which gave me the feeling that the large amount of iron might affect him, after all, despite being barren of magic. “I’ll go get them and send them to the clearing. You focus on freeing the prisoners up here and showing them where to go. I’ll meet you at the cave where I found you once I’m finished.”

Ryken eyed me with distrust. “Don’t even think about backing out of your bargain with me.”

“I’m not,” I whispered, knowing that I would be following the bargain to the letter. He just wouldn’t like the result. “The cave is close enough to where we need to go next.”

Ryken inclined his head in acknowledgment, the silver in his irises turning molten with determination. He moved, unlocking the cages with the keys we’d stolen from the entrance as prisoners effused their gratitude with whispered words.

I gripped the skeleton key to the dungeon in my hand, the iron irritating the skin of my palm, and took in a deep breath. The night would be an uphill battle from here. Ryken was going to be furious once he realized I’d tricked him. There was no way he could enter the portal, and I wouldn’t be doing it for him.

I shook the thought from my head and moved through the narrow hall. The only thing that mattered right now was Eulalia. I would deal with the repercussions later.

The iron of the stairwell pressed along my skin, dampening my magic and depleting my energy. The deeper into the dungeon I ventured, the queasier I became. Muffled voices and sniffles met my ear as I made it through the hall of the sublevel, a tone completely different from that of the women of the order who had once been imprisoned here.

The Gallows Coven sat behind bars, their cheeks streaked with tears as they comforted each other, pressed tightly together to encircle the woman who’d called for my death. Eulalia. She was curled up in the center, hunched over and hugging herself, swiping at her nose with a bit of cloth.

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